26 Comments

''More and more investors believe our markets are rigged in favor of large Wall Street firms, who have the resources and reliable government connections to employ high-speed computers and proprietary algorithms to their advantage through manipulative HFA trading. Honest investors and retail traders believe they are being preyed upon 24/7/365 in what is supposed to be a fair and open marketplace while market regulators look the other way, through either incompetence or, worse, through the quid-pro-quo revolving door between Wall Street and the federal government. Wall Street banks regularly report unbelievable consecutive profitable trading days quarter after quarter, which is statistically impossible unless they are cheating. Yet, government regulators don’t see anything unusual with such results. No wonder investors have little faith in our markets. It’s no surprise that polls consistently show the approval rating of our government officials nearly in single digits. Taking into account the margin of error, the U.S. Congress is batting zero with the public.'' from your interesting link.

Wake up & smell the coffee !!! They Are Fkn Crooks !! No Doubt ! Four phrases and nine words for you :

I'm wondering if the general public just flooded the market with shares, wanting their money back, what would be the impact on the various stock exchanges?

I've long been aware that this is a form of casino spending that is fraught with risk, but when the table is tilted, and the regulator is paid to look the other way, I'm surprised there are still people willing to front up with their own cash, to throw it away at this scam.

The general public hold very little of the stocks, shares, bonds and securities, however many are held on their behalf by the Pension Funds who are in on the crookery and trade and charge fees & commissions & extract monies at every turn. I can't recommend Max Kaiser enough for his clear, concise & constant exposure of ''Markets, Finance & Scandal'' [ http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/ ]. Also fyi :

''Giant bank holding companies now own airports, toll roads and ports; control power plants and store and hoard vast quantities of commodities of all sorts. They are systematically buying up or gaining control of the essential lifelines of the economy. How have they pulled this off, and where have they gotten the money ?''

Financial insiders have hidden economic truths for far too long, by describing them in arcane terms that no layperson can understand. It is time for a grassroots movement to knock The Banking Institutions' conventional money off its pedestal and replace it with fresh paradigms that puts people before profits.

Jefferson was right. We need a system that demonstrates that the creation of a stable and sustainable monetary system will reflect real wealth, rather than the smoke and mirrors of speculative profits, thus providing a real alternative to this 'Age of Austerity' that we're all having to suffer as Capital is 'hoovered up' as opposed to 'trickled down'. This vision can be realized through such creative initiatives as :

Establishing 'time banks' and complementary currencies geared to specific services such as health and education ;

Strictly as a medium of exchange, money is one of the most ingenious inventions of mankind as it can facilitate the trade of goods and services and allows for specialization and eases the division of labour.

However, 'Compound Interest' and inflation have caused monetary systems to balloon to the point where bailing out banks, large corporations and even entire countries will not prevent a complete breakdown of the global economy, until & unless we change the system in fundamental ways. Also please consider :

''Public banking may be a radical solution, but it is also an obvious one. This is not rocket science. By developing a public banking system, governments can keep the interest and reinvest it locally. Costs can be reduced across the board ; taxes can be cut or services can be increased and market stability can be created for governments, borrowers and consumers. Banking and credit can become public utilities, feeding the economy rather than feeding off it.'' Also see :

One of the four prongs of www.debtsuspensionrights.blogspot.com is to create a stock market for main street. Main Street Stock Market would eliminate the daytrader and simply be a more logical, patient version of wall street. I would MUCH RATHER create a new stock market for main street which in turn becomes the best type of protest against wall street.

Anything is better than having our financial markets controlled by Wall Street punks, who use HFA trading to " juke investors out of a few pennies in high volume 24/7." The article captures their arrogant attitude quite nicely when a Wall Street trader says, "the last thing we need is pain-in-the-ass government bureaucrats thinking they have to do something to placate the public, when we know and they know, they can’t do anything to stop us."

If competent regulators purge the currently rigged market dominated by HFA traders, the result should be a fair and open market, which is what you and honest investors are seeking. We may be one market crash away from that happening. Investors and the general public will demand action, if the article posted above is half way right. It's just a matter of time.

I disagree, there is an endemic issue related to hypsterism and same day trading. The present stock market is gambling pure and simple. There are no incentives for a person the longer they keep their money with one stock, and there should be.

It is impossible to arrive at fair value for an asset when the market is tilted in favor of dishonest high frequency algo traders who manipulate the market with front-running and pump-and-dump algorithms. A fair market is one which facilitates price discovery between buyers and sellers; between supply and demand. I favor any approach that creates a level playing field for market participants and restores integrity to our financial markets.

So we are in agreement. Not sure what the solution is but I think time based solutions make the most sense. If I agree to keep my money on a company for one year, or not withdraw more than 10% in any month of what I have invested, companies can breathe a bit easier and perhaps make better long term plans.

This solution would be as lethal to a day trader as sunlight is to a vampire.

The 2013 protests in Turkey started on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at a brutal eviction of a sit-in at the park protesting against the plan.[69] Subsequently, supporting protests and strikes took place across Turkey protesting a wide range of concerns, at the core of which were issues of freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and the government's encroachment on Turkey's secularism. With no centralised leadership beyond the small organisation organising the original environmental protest, the protests have been compared to the Occupy movement and the May 1968 events. After Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dismissed the protestors as "a few çapulcu" on 2 June, the protestors reappropriated the term çapulcu (looter) for themselves (and coined the derivative "chapulling", given the meaning of "fighting for your rights"). Humor has been the primary "weapon" for the protestors.[70]

You're right, not all regulators are incompetent fools. That was unfair to many regulators who are trying the best they can. Many regulators are doing a good job but are simply being overruled by their political bosses. As far as being an agent provocateur, you can jam it.